Hyatt Regency Boston Hosts a Very Special Event

Hotels are always giving back to their communities. Their associates clean up parks, paint schools, plant trees and volunteer at any number of local charities. But sometimes you learn of an effort made by one property that is so extraordinary, you just have to share it.

On Saturday, Aug. 23, the Hyatt Regency Boston (regencyboston.hyatt.com) hosted a very special wedding, the marriage James Costello and Krista D'Agostino. Costello, a runner who suffered serious burns and shrapnel injuries when explosions rocked the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, met D'Agostino, a traveling nurse, at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where he spent two weeks in in-patient therapy following the multiple surgeries he underwent at Massachusetts General Hospital. Love quickly blossomed between the two.

Some months later, the hotel's marketing team stumbled across a single tweet from a local justice of the peace expressing how happy she was to learn of Costello and D'Agostino's engagement. "We knew right away we had to help in any way we could," says Emily Sharpe, area marketing and public relations manager for the hotel.

Sharpe and the 502-room Hyatt Regency's event and F&B staff spent the next six months planning the wedding and roping in more than 13 area suppliers — from musicians and photographers to a bridal boutique and a brewery — to help sponsor the happy event. "When we started to outreach to local vendors to help us on our mission, never would we have imagined the overwhelming response that we received," Sharpe notes. The wedding was held on the hotel's third-floor terrace (decorated with white and blue hydrangeas, in a nod to the Nantucket theme the couple chose) and the 5,046-square-foot Grand Ballroom.

Hyatt's generosity didn't end with the wedding. Upon learning the couple were planning a Hawaii honeymoon, the hotel reached out to three sister properties there — the Andaz Maui, the Hyatt Regency Maui and the Grand Hyatt Kauai. All three graciously stepped up to provide three complimentary room nights each to ensure the couple had their dream honeymoon. "James and Krista exemplify the meaning of the triumph of the human spirit, and that is perfectly aligned with Hyatt Thrive's core values," says Sharpe, referencing the hotel chain's program of community-based philanthropy. "We know that our 'home' extends past our few blocks and into the heart of Boston, and we couldn't be prouder of our involvement."